Steam & Excursion > Moving Red River & Gulf Railroad #106

This past weekend, volunteers from the Southern Forest Heritage Museum in Long Leaf, LA moved Red River & Gulf #106 from the Car Shop where she has resided for the past 63 years. If you aren't familiar with this project, please see the following page:

http://redriverandgulf.net/RRG-News-20180804-RRG106.html

Here is the video of the move. Mike Miller (Team Leader) has been working diligently for months to get the roadbed, track, and running gear ready to roll her out. His efforts paid off and the actual event was surprisingly easy.

Now that the immediate crisis has been averted, the staff is working out what happens next. Stay tuned...

The full report is posted here:  http://redriverandgulf.net/Work-Session-20181013.html



 

Jason Rose
Spring, TX
Rio Grande Explorations

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Man, I don't think you could pay me enought to stand alongside that steel cable. 

Actually, the two snatch-blocks ( pulleys)  divides the strain and reduces the strain from that of a single-line.
The mechanical advantage is 3-times the strength of a single line.
I was also interested in what was used as a braking scheme.

But, yes you have a point, spectators should have been kept well back, for safety.

W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/18 17:28 by wcamp1472.

wcamp1472 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Actually, the two snatch-blocks ( pulleys)
>  divides the strain and reduces the strain from
> that of a single-line.
> The mechanical advantage is 3-times the strength
> of a single line.
>
> W.

Slight correction. It is only 2 times. The only segments counted are those that return back to the same location.

For example, if the engine-tender weighted 50,000 pounds (not going into friction and etc) the cable from the engine to the pulley on the tree to the tractor, both segments would be pulling 50,000 pounds. But in this case since the cable starts (tied) to the tree goes to the engine through a pulley then back to the tree then to the tractor, the 2 segments between the engine and the tree are pulling 25,000 pounds each. The segment between the tree and the tractor is also 25,000 pounds. That pulley on the tree is merely changing the direction of the pull.

Interesting that with all that work done, once they fix the track they're going to reverse the cable
direction and push the locomotive back into the shed (uh-huh, wanna buy a bridge?)

Out

Re:  jst3751

 Mechanical advantage.....( pulley class)

In the words of Ed McMahon, to Johnny Carson: “Right you are, sir..”
My Badd..

W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/18 18:54 by wcamp1472.

In answer to several of your questions, first, the locomotive was actually rolled a few feet,back in September, to clear the fireman's side main rod so that it could be removed from the crankpin, and that was accomplished with a pair of come-alongs (although it was hard work).  So there was very little cable stretch and it was a brand new cable, just unrolled off of the spool.   Second, the dual pulley system was used so that we could have pin point control over the engine movement, as well as the mechanical advantage.  (Plus we had a great dozer operator)  As far as stopping, the track outside the shed is on a very slight upgrade, away from the shed, due to the subsidence of the track structure inside the shed as the ties have completely rotted out in the last 60 years, so stopping was quite easy.  Finally, we still have a log car to move in the shed, as well as to rebuild the track structure in the shed before the engine can be moved back into the shed.  Seeing how well this went, and knowing the condition of the bearings, it will probably just be a direct pull, slightly up hill, and we block the track short of the log car for safety.  Again, when we rebuild the track structure, the lowest point will be at the main beam at the front of the shed, which must clear the stack, it will be up grade from there to the back of the shed.

The actual spectators were kept back at least 100 feet from the operations.  The persons in the photos were members of the crew who were observers in case we had any sort of unusual sounds or any other glitch in the operations and they were to signal for an immediate stop.  We used a brand new cable straight off of the spool rated at more than 4 times our estimated pull.  We rigged everything up the day before, and did a short test to verify that all was well and that we had no cable stretch at all.  In fact the engine rolled so easily that we never had the dozer even throttled up beyond idle nor the cable stretched into a fully horizontal position.  

Thanks for the clarity....
And the precautions..

Well done...

Plus, movement and axle rotation is ALWAYS a good thing...
sitting in one place is hard on the machinery..

Posted from iPhone

Thanks for the clarity....
And the precautions..

Well done...

Plus, movement and axle rotation is ALWAYS a good thing...
sitting in one place, for years, is hard on the machinery..

Thanks for the thorough planning and careful move..

W.

Posted from iPhone

Normally, I have no bases to contribute on the Steam board! I know truly nothing about steam and as such I reserve myself to just reading and learning. But I do know about winch cables and blocking! I’ve been doing this for nearly 30 years in the military; both form a heavy maintenance (recovery) and form a rescue aspect.

Blocking is an amazing mechanical advantage. Most of what has been said so far in this thread has worked itself to the largely correct answer. I would like to contribute by merely clarifying a couple points.

First; the weight, resistance, or “strain” never changes. If the locomotive weighs 50k lbs. or produces 50k lbs. of resistance (to movement), blocking, pulleys, and cables won’t change that! The only way to reduce weight, is to remove weight, (cut something off…). Resistance can be reduced by decreasing friction (grease, wheels, reduced grade…).
Second; what the pulleys, blocks, and cable are doing is reducing the amount of force needed to move the weight or overcome the resistance.

Example: in a straight line pull (hook the bulldozer to the locomotive coupler…) the bulldozer must produce enough force (50k lbs.) to be at least equal to the weight/resistance of the locomotive (50k lbs.). By adding the pulleys as in the video, the amount of force needed is halved (25k lbs.) to move the same weight/resistance (50k lbs.).

In the case of this thread, 80% of the most likely risk is mitigated by using a brand new cable! Very smart and mature decision. The rest is just matching everything to fit the cable. I would agree that a braking system would have eased my nerves in case something broke. FWIW, the tree and the locomotive are the two oldest parts of this operation and probably the most likely to break!

Overall, I say good job!

Rick Bacon
Windsor, CO

Kimball Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Man, I don't think you could pay me enought to
> stand alongside that steel cable. 

My near horror story on the topic...

After the 1989 SF earthquake, SP 4-6-2 #2479 listed on the engineer's side.  To facilitate our restoration effort, we had already made plans to pull the locomotive back off its 26 year old display track.  Being resourcesful, we enlisted the help of a nearby road crew who had a large grader.  The grader driver was very enthusiastic about helping the effort and strung a steel cable between the tender coupler and his rig.  Everyone was ready and I was positioned, mid-tender engineer's side, to hand relay signals to the driver.

Not supprisingly, the locomotive would not make the intial budge.  Additionally, the grader's bald tires could not gain traction on the wet pavement.   It had rained the night before.

Arbitrarily without any consultation, the driver began rocking back and forth by taking out the cable slack and gunning forward.    This did not last long before the bracket on his grader broke loose.   The bracket and cable sprung back toward the tender...and me!      I am here ONLY because the bracket and cable hit the back of the tender leaving a large dent.

SAFETY FIRST!

Your actions impact others around you..

SAFETY FIRST!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/18 15:33 by KMiddlebrook.

KMiddlebrook Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Arbitrarily without any consultation, the driver
> began rocking back and forth by taking out the
> cable slack and gunning forward.    This did not
> last long before the bracket on his grader broke
> loose.   The bracket and cable sprung back
> toward the tender...and me!      I am here ONLY
> because the bracket and cable hit the back of the
> tender leaving a large dent.
>
> SAFETY FIRST!
>
> Your actions impact others around you..
>
> SAFETY FIRST!

You wont believe, or maybe you will, how many weekend warriers who get their 4x4 stuck get their buddy to do exactly that, often with damaging results.

Thanks KMiddlebrook for your story.  One never knows what part might fail...